A Boston College sports blog capturing the highs and lows of being a BC fan living 1,000 miles from Chestnut Hill.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Bowl speculation and other links

Monday means new bowl projections. The experts have us going to the Orange or the Peach. Orange can happen as it is in our hands. The Peach/ChickFilA will not happen. I am not trying to be a wet blanket. There is no one who would be more excited to see BC play in Atlanta. I just know it won't happen. They will take other teams before us and even with a win this Saturday, enough other ACC teams will be close enough in record that they can freely bypass us. Sorry folks. It's Orange or bust.

First I think they restarted the clocks on the bowl rules when they instituted the "BC rule" after Boise. That would make this year 3. Not sure though. Either way, I bet the Peach would pass on us with the hope they get a better ACCCG loser in 2009.

Although beating LSU in the Peach Bowl would probably earn BC more national respect than beating Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl, BC should prefer an Orange Bowl big for at least two reasons:

(1) Recruiting. Making the Orange Bowl means we finally overcame the hurdle of winning a conference championship (2004 co-champs doesn't count) and making a BCS bowl. Not only should be attractive to recruits; let's be real here: A student being recruited by Boston College and LSU is going to go to LSU. But a student being recruited by Boston College and Cincinnati might give Boston College another look after this game. Given that Ohio and the "mid-east" is our biggest recruiting footprint, an Orange Bowl win could do quite a bit of good for us.

2) Money: The Orange Bowl has a $17MM payout. The Peach Bowl has a $3MM payout. BC is still not a self-sufficient athletics department, and we need every penny we can get.

(For purposes of this post, assume that BC has a snowball's chance in hell of being invited to the Peach Bowl. Also, let's all agree to call it the Peach Bowl. Chick-fil-a might be a good company and a tasty sandwich, but this corporate nonsense must stop.)

I've been burned too many times (e.g., 2004, 2007) to start dreaming of a trip to Miami over New Years. I prefer to assume we're going to Boise and be pleasantly surprised when we land anywhere else. Let's beat Maryland and then worry about the next game before we get too crazy about bowls. Did I mention 2004?

When LSU started to lose it became great for whomever loses the ACCCG (hopefully not us). They are guaranteed to bring a huge crowd which more than makes up for the Wakes, NC's, GTs, BC's of the ACC. Plus, it would give the Peach a little leeway next year, not forcing them to take the loser of the ACCCG in case a weaker traveling SEC team lands there. Either way, lets just beat maryland and show up big to the ACCCG.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but Dominique Davis is the brother of Desmond Clark, current Bears TE who starred at.....Wake Forest. Nothing sweeter than leading a heroic 4th quarter comeback to beat the older brother's alma mater. Maybe a different brother played at Maryland......?

I am not even concerned about bowls right now. Our main concern has to be finding some way to score enough points to beat Maryland. And do not underestimate how difficult this challenge will be. Maryland is playing for bowl positioning. They have a lot to gain by an upset victory over BC. Further, no player is more important on a football team than the QB. They touch the ball nearly 50% of the time. We are putting, not just a back-up, but a freshman back-up into a high-pressure game. It is very difficult for a team to overcome this challenge. I believe BC is going to have to find some way to score at least 10 points to beat Maryland. I'm hopeful we will prevail, but it is pre-mature to even worry about bowls until Monday.

Keep in mind, this is really a two-game tourney now. Winning on Saturday merely gives us the opportunity to play for the Orange Bowl. And the competition should we get by Maryland, will be much, much tougher.

Why does the "conventional wisdom" have Utah going to the Sugar Bowl? Granted, the Sugar Bowl gets to pick before the Orange Bowl. But if you were the head of an organization whose primary purpose is to generate tourism dollars for New Orleans---a city whose main attraction is alcohol-infused sex and debauchery---would you expect to recoup your investment by inviting a large group of Utahns?

Not that Cincinnati is known as the latest coming of Amsterdam (just ask Larry Flynt). But still...

The University of Utah is about 50% Mormon. Granted, that's probably 49% more than just about any other school, but many of their fans drink and tailgate. I saw them doing so in good numbers outside the 2004 Fiesta Bowl (which, to bring this back to BC, is the BCS game the Eagles would have played in had we beaten Syracuse on 11/27/2004).

K- Good point about the bowl money being divided up by the conference, but there's still a difference there. $14m more in the pool means more than a million extra per school. Not a program-changing sum, but still significant.